List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 140

This is a list of cases reported in volume 140 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1891.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 140 U.S.

The Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which says: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court . . .". The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 Congress originally fixed the number of justices at six (one chief justice and five associate justices). Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices (always including one chief justice).

When the cases in volume 140 U.S. were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Notable Case in 140 U.S.

In re Ross

In In re Ross, 140 U.S. 453 (1891), the Supreme Court held that, in countries in which the United States exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction, U.S. law is properly applied by U.S. consular courts to non-U.S.-citizen sailors on American-flagged ships.

Citation style

Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 the federal court structure at the time comprised District Courts, which had general trial jurisdiction; Circuit Courts, which had mixed trial and appellate (from the US District Courts) jurisdiction; and the United States Supreme Court, which had appellate jurisdiction over the federal District and Circuit courts—and for certain issues over state courts. The Supreme Court also had limited original jurisdiction (i.e., in which cases could be filed directly with the Supreme Court without first having been heard by a lower federal or state court). There were one or more federal District Courts and/or Circuit Courts in each state, territory, or other geographical region.